100+ Non-Toy Gifts for Toddlers to Teens

What do we really want when we offer gifts to our kids? I’m guessing excitement, happiness, hopefully some lasting joy. It’s disheartening to give a highly anticipated toy or the newest gadget only to see it ignored a day or a week later. The antidote? Fewer presents of better quality, as well as an emphasis on experiences. According to science, these are the gifts that result in real pleasure.

Real Tools for Real Work

Young kids beg to help out. When we let them, they’re learning skills as well as the satisfaction of taking on responsibilities. Rather than toy versions of tools, get them appropriately sized real tools (to use with supervision). You can get plenty of useful, not-too-large tools at your local hardware and home goods stores. As kids get older, invest in adult-sized tools they can use for a lifetime.

Starting at four years old we got our own kids woodworking tools and gave them access to scrap wood. We also kept a stool handy for little kids to help at the kitchen counter, and whenever possible let them pour their own drinks from a tiny pitcher into a tiny cup during mealtimes—-cultivating coordination as well as a sense of involvement. When our oldest was three and loved to turn machines on and off, we got him a hand vac as a gift. He used it for years, immediately on the scene to vacuum up crumbs like a man on a mission. Saying yes when a child offers to help is more important than we might imagine.

One of my kids’ favorite activities was surprisingly affordable bagpiping lessons with a gentleman who’d once been Pipe Major for Scotland’s Black Watch. One-time or ongoing classes can expand on nearly every interest or create new ones. For teens, one-on-one mentoring in an area of passionate interest is even better. Here are some ways you can connect teens to experts in all sorts of fields. Class ideas?

coding

whittling

horseback riding

yoga

fencing

skiing

dance

pottery

rock climbing

archery

fencing

gymnastics

parkour

glass blowing

sailing

Membership or Season Passes

My oldest son was the youngest member of a model railroad club and almost never missed their regular meetings. Give a membership to an organization that fits your child’s quirky passions. You can purchase memberships to the local historical society, rock collector’s group, chess club, amateur archaeology organization, herpetology society, magician’s guild, whatever builds on a young person’s fascination. Be sure to read newsletters, attend classes, and otherwise enjoy member benefits. Other possibilities include:

These ideas are great coming from a parent, they may be even more thrilling coming from relatives who want to spend some one-on-one time with younger members of the family. Simply give materials, instructions, or brochures for something you’ll be doing together. When you give the gift, make sure to set a date!

Print out a recipe you’ve never tried, include ingredients, and set a date to make it together.

Go on a train ride.

Make a fairy garden together. Gift a few supplies for the project, like a tiny watering can fairies might use.

Enjoy plein airart experiences together. You might want to give the youngest child a special tote bag to bring art supplies to the park, zoo, or local wildlife spot to draw or paint. For older youth, consider gifting a small sketchbook along with a compact set of watercolors, oil pastels, sketch pencils, or charcoal.

Boomerang subscriptions are one of the best things ever and a favorite with my kids. We saved every one we got. It’s like a radio show wrapped up in an audio magazine, covered with a delicious layer of smart. Perfect to save for a long trip, great to pass along to younger siblings.

For teens, find a publication that meets their interests, whether hip hop or high fashion. Look for indie magazines if you can’t find something that’s just right.

Come up with your own version of a subscription box. Send a themed box every month or every season with projects, snacks, or other small surprises. Or send a letter every week or two with another installment of an ongoing story you make up as you go along. Or try some other strange and interesting snail mail surprises.

Quality Musical Instruments

Real instruments, scaled for a child’s size, sound great and inspire interest. Even very young children can pluck along to sheet music tucked under the strings of a lap harp. For impromptu playing at my house we leave out a number of instruments including a wooden flute, set of panpipes, ukulele, small pentatonic scale harp, and a small accordion. And one of the best gifts we gave one of our sons was a used electric guitar when he turned 13. You might want to start with something affordable, such as a harmonica or ocarina. (Thanks to Silvia for suggesting instruments as gifts.) Here are some sources for child-sized instruments.

There’s something special about gifts you make. A snuggly fleece blanket, a second-hand riding toy with a custom paint job, a refinished child-sized rocking chair. You can find plenty of ideas online, but don’t forget these old standbys.

A recording. Perhaps great-grandma telling stories of her childhood, mom reading aloud from a favorite book, or a song composed by dad for his child.

Make a “Who Loves Me” board book with pictures of family and friends (and pets) for the newest baby. For an older child write an adventure story featuring them, or stage and then photograph Dinovember scenes when they’re asleep. For a teen, maybe a silly book with pictures of relatives back when they were teens. Such books easily created on Snapfish.com and other sites.

Memorabilia to celebrate a teen’s birthday. This is easier than ever with eBay. Find a newspaper issued on the day of his or her birth. You can add a magazine from the month of his or her birth, music popular that year, a political button, a piece of vintage clothing, etc.

A collection of family-favorite recipes. This is particularly useful for older teens and young adults. Just scan them and print out, or use one of the many services that prints hardbound books with your content.

A legacy present. If you’re lucky enough to have things from earlier generations, pass them on. Give grandpa’s fountain pen to your daughter, explaining that he loved to write as much as she does. Give a great uncle’s watch to a teen who shares his wanderlust. Give the funky afghan your aunt made to the kid who is as offbeat as she was. Write down or tell some stories about these relatives when you give such gifts!

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18 thoughts on “100+ Non-Toy Gifts for Toddlers to Teens”

Thanks for this. I especially agree with the idea of giving kitchen stuff. One of my dearest friends, now deceased, gave us a cookie press and cookie cutters when my daughter was a baby. We use them to make Christmas cookies together every year. Merry Christmas!

I’ve seen a handful of these lists but I think your’s the best I’ve seen this year. One thing that most of your ideas have in common, is spending time with Mom or Dad (or Gramma, etc.). Because that is what kids really crave…time with their favorite grown-ups…

You don’t say what gender they are or what interests they have, so it’s hard to hone down what might be a good fit. My kids love science magazines like Discover and Scientific American as well as Wired. (These are all written for an adult audience, but accessible to interested tweens and teens.) For young girls, magazines like New Moon and Byou – Be Your Own You are good. Mental Floss is an excellent bet for people with all sorts of interests—-quirky, fun, and smart. Or aim for particular interests, maybe crafting or skateboarding or horseback riding—-there are periodicals for just about any interest possible.

This is a wonderful list, Laura — thank you!! I especially like the Out-of-The-Ordinary and the Parent-Made sections. Of all the gifts anyone in our family received, I believe we got the most “together enjoyment” from games. One year Santa brought one of those convertible multi-game tables (pool, air hockey, etc.) that enthralled us all together for hours. But hands-down the most wildly successful gift that brought us literally HUNDREDS of hours of shared laughter & delight for many years after we received it was the game “Wise and Otherwise.” Our daughter was 6 or 7 the year we received it from cousins, and our son was 10. This was the rare game that she could actually beat all of us at even though she wasn’t reading yet and her brother was (is) a genius. It’s a gem!!!

For anyone reading her comment, please know that Marcy is the author of an extraordinary book Parenting for Peace: Raising the Next Generation of Peacemakers. I urge you to read this book and suggest you make it your go-to gift for expectant parents, teachers, and anyone who cares about the next generation. Find out more at Marcy’s site, marcyaxness.com.

Laura’s background includes teaching nonviolence, writing collaborative poetry with nursing home residents, facilitating support groups for abuse survivors, and writing sardonic greeting cards. She is currently a book editor. She also leads workshops on memoir, poetry, and creative thinking for Cuyahoga County Public Library, Literary Cleveland, and elsewhere. Her poetry appears in such places as Verse Daily, J Journal, Neurology, Literary Mama, and Penman Review. Her creative nonfiction and essays appear in such places as Wired, MOON Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, Praxis, and Under the Gum Tree.

She also blogs optimistically on topics such as learning, creative living, mindfulness, and hope.

Laura lives on a small farm where she works as an editor while also slooowly writing the 17 books she alleges she’ll actually finish.

Although she has deadlines to meet she tends to wander from the computer to preach hope, snort with laughter, cook subversively, ponder life’s deeper meaning, talk to livestock, sing to bees, walk dogs, make messy art, concoct tinctures, watch foreign films, and hide in books.

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